It's possible to tone down the fright factor

For a few weeks now, this has been eating at me. A letter to the editor about haunted houses ran Oct. 30 titled “Scary haunted houses not for young children.”

Before this person spoke, he should have asked those at the haunted house about how they handle people who come to their haunted house. I don't know how they handle theirs, but I'm guessing they have the same policy that was used when I used to be a member of Sinnissippi Rod and Gun Club.

When we did ours, if someone came up to one of us and told us they have a medical problem, we'd give them the laid-back tour – where one of us would walk them through. As we'd walk them through, we made sure no one did something scary.

A while back, after my wife started having heart problems, we went to a haunted house. I mentioned her heart problem, and we were given what I call the scaled-back tour.

You see, these haunted houses aren't there to make problems worse. They do understand when someone comes to them and says, “Hey, I'd like to go through but not get scared because … .”